Putting the onus of its debacle in the Assembly elections on him, the BSP on Wednesday suspended senior leader and its Muslim face, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, and his son Afzal from the party.

“Siddiqui and his son Afzal have been expelled from the party. He has a partnership in a number of slaughter houses and ‘benami’ properties in his name. He also took money during assembly polls due to which party had to suffer defeat,” PTI quoted Satish Chandra Mishra, BSP general secretary and Rajya Sabha member, as saying.

He also alleged that Nasimuddin used to “accept money” from people in return for work and added that the “BSP will not tolerate such indiscipline”.

The party managed to secure only 19 seats out of the total 403 seats in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

Last month, the party, during an organisational rejig post-Assembly elections, removed Siddiqui as in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. He was later appointed in-charge of Madhya Pradesh.

Siddiqui, who was said to be close to Mayawati, was on the list of BSP’s star campaigners during the assembly elections. He and other prime campaigners also had the benefit of having expenses charged in the name of their party instead of the candidate.